Commercial interruptions: The hidden costs of drug ads

Are they educational, infuriating or intrusive? Physicians find that direct-to-consumer ads for pharmaceutical products can be all three.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. April 2, 2007.

What do evanescent moths, wisecracking beavers and Abraham Lincoln have in common? The answer would be apparent to those who watch television or read magazines, because all are featured in commercials for pharmaceuticals, in this case sleep medications.

Ads aimed at consumers have been with us for nearly a decade now, and signals indicate that patients and physicians are becoming more savvy about using this powerful tool.

Richard Kravitz, MD, MSPH, professor of internal medicine at the University of California, Davis, has noticed a drop in the number of direct patient requests for advertised medications. "I think consumers are developing a healthier skepticism, and the requests tend to be framed more as, 'I saw this ad for product X, what do you think about it?' "

Physicians also may be becoming less annoyed by the whole phenomenon. "They are starting to learn how to handle it." Dr. Kravitz has researched these ads' effects on physicians' prescribing decisions.

Pharmaceutical companies continue to favor the ads, having spent an estimated $4.5 billion on them last year. "DTC advertising empowers patients, increasing awareness of diseases and available treatments," said Ken Johnson, senior vice president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group representing large pharmaceutical research and biotechnology firms.

One thing is certain: Patients are seeing more ads. A report last fall by the Government Accountability Office found that spending on these DTC ads increased twice as fast from 1997 -- when the practice began -- through 2005 as did spending on promotions to physicians or on research and development.